Shopping Saturday - Dry Goods, Notions and More

My 2x great-grandfather, Timothy Creeden was the guardian of his half-sister, Roseanne Creeden in Clinton and Mercer counties in Ohio. Timothy had to keep records of any purchases made on Roseanne's behalf and there were several purchases for clothing materials in Roseanne's probate file.

This purchase was made in Celina, Ohio in December of 1888 for 10 yards of calico, 1 card of buttons, shirting?, and a pair of shoes. There is an entry called O.N.T. on most of the receipts for 5 cents. I'm not sure if that was a tax or if that stood for something else.

The logo shown above says "Bought of C. D. Hierholzer & Co. Wholesale and Retail". It looks like C.D. Hierholzer & Co. sold a bit of everything with "Dry Goods, Notions, Carpets, Boots and Shoes" stated on its receipts. That's quite a combination and long before the days of Walmart! It's hard to imagine the norm being to shop for the materials to make clothes instead of the clothes themselves.

In the upper left corner of the receipt, there are three names: C. D. Hierholzer, P. H. Schunck, and J. H. Pulskamp.

I would guess these are partners in the ownership of the store. I was surprised to see my Pulskamp name again. This may be my great-grandfather George Pulskamp's brother J. Henry Pulskamp.

This receipt shows another purchase for several yards of muslin in October of 1888.

Shopping Saturday is a prompt suggested by Audrey Collins of The Family Recorder.

Wedding Wednesday - George Pulskamp and Mary Gast

My great-grandparents George F. Pulskamp and Mary Catherine Gast were married on August 19, 1899 in Celina, Ohio. They were certainly a handsome pair. I love the detailing on her dress! Thanks so much to one of my Pulskamp cousins for sending this to me and giving me permission to repost it. The photo is also posted on FindAGrave along with other information about the family.

George was the son of H. H. Pulskamp and Anna Marie Schaefer. George graduated from Notre Dame University in 1896 with a B. L. degree. He published a German newspaper, Der Mercer County Bote and ran a print shop. Mary was the daughter of John Gast and Catherine Desch and operated a small store in Edgewater Park.

George and Mary's Marriage License

George and Mary celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on August 21, 1949 in Celina, Ohio with many of their family and friends.

Mappy Monday - Maryland Historical Properties

The Inventory of Historic Properties site by the Maryland Historical Trust contains detailed descriptions of historic properties in Maryland, including maps, family histories connected to the properties, and even ancestral photos in some cases.

My Maryland Sparks family owned a section of the land in Queen Anne's County known as Spaniard's Neck. I've seen references to the Sparks properties called Sparks Lot and Heath's Gift, so I was curious if I could find out more about them. In my first attempt, I typed "Spaniards Neck" into the search bar and got a hit! The only thing is that the search took me off of the site and the hit was in a Community Plan for 2009. Still, it was interesting to see that the Spaniard Neck name was still in use.

Map from Centreville, Maryland Community Plan 2009

I returned to the historic properties site and selected Queen Anne's from the "Search by County" page. I knew that the Sparks property was in or near Centreville, so I concentrated on ones in that area. There were several properties in the Spaniard Neck area, but the closest match to the names I was looking for was one called "Upper Heathworth". The document contained a map of the Spaniard Neck area with the location of the Upper Heathworth property and several photos of the property.

Upper Heathworth

There were several other properties in the Spaniard Neck area and also a mention of Sparks Mill Road in Centreville. I'll have to revisit this site when I have a bit more time to read some of the other histories. The documents I found on the site were pdf files that were made up of pages and photos that had been scanned in. There is a text search on the site, but it wasn't returning anything for me, maybe since the scanned pages aren't searchable. Despite the search limitations, the site is definitely worth a look if you have Maryland ancestors.

Sunday's Obituary - Godwin and Sparks

These death notices were published next to each other in the Easton Star on May 25, 1852.

  
In Spaniard's Neck, Q A co., on Wednesday last, Mrs. Elizabeth, wife of Rob't Sparks.

Near Centreville, on Thursday last, Miss Arianna Godwin, daughter of Capt. Godwin, aged 17 years.

I posted yesterday about how intertwined some of my Queen Anne's County families were. Spaniard's Neck was a section of land in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. A section of Spaniard's Neck was owned by Daniel Sparks. Upon his death, the land passed to his children, Robert Sparks,  Martha Sparks (wife of George W. Meredith), Daniel B. Sparks, Samuel A. Sparks, and James H. Sparks. The land was sold in 1878.

Samuel A. Sparks was married to Susan Godwin and their daughter Ariana was my great-grandmother. I've seen the name Ariana (or Arianna) several times now in the Sparks and Godwin families.

I believe the Elizabeth Sparks named in the death notice may have been the sister-in-law of my Samuel Sparks. I'm not sure yet how Arianna Godwin fits into my family.

Surname Saturday - Godwin, Davis, Sparks, and Meredith

My Godwin, Davis, and Sparks families are from Queen Anne's County, Maryland.

The earliest record I have for these families is from the Index to Queen Anne's County, MD Marriage Records. The index shows that my GGG-Grandparents Samuel Godwin and Ann Davis were married on March 23, 1824 by Rev. Crouch in Queen Anne's County.

Their daughter Susan Godwin was married to Samuel Sparks on July 16, 1849 by Rev. Sumption.

This record from the 1850 census for Queen Anne's County shows an interesting group of families living together. Susan and Samuel Sparks are living with Susan's parents and have a baby daughter, Martha Ann. A couple of young girls from the Meredith family and Rebecca Davis are also living with the Godwins. Rebecca Davis is close in age to Ann Davis Godwin, so they might be sisters. Also of note is that Samuel Godwin's occupation is a sailor.

Godwin family in 1850 census for Queen Anne's County, MD

I am not sure where these Merediths fit into my family, but my GG-Grandparents Francis Councill and Mary Meredith were married on July 8, 1840 in Queen Anne's County. Both the Merediths and the Sparks had daughters named Ariana. Francis and Mary's son John Wesley Councill married Samuel and Susan Sparks' daughter Ariana, so it would appear that all of these families were close.

The previous page in the 1850 census has a Meredith and two other Sparks families, so those might provide some clues.

Sparks family on page before Godwins in 1850 Queen Anne's census

The Sparks family above also has a daughter named Martha Ann. Robert Sparks and his family are living nearby.

Another Sparks family on the same page of the 1850 census

I have a long way to go on sorting out these families. I'd love to hear from anyone else researching any of these surnames in Queen Anne's!